Election in January? Don’t wait – sack this government now!

The cynical posturing of the Green Party in calling for a January General Election for ´the good of the country´ will not save it from annihilation when the Irish people go to vote.

In three and a half years in government, the Greens have shown themselves to be no more than a clutch of arch opportunists who were quite happy to assist Fianna Fail make working class people pay for the consequences of the economic and political crimes of that party who carry full responsibility for the disaster which has been viswited on society.

The announcement by the Greens that they are committed to passing a brutal budget and agreeing the strings that will come attached with the ECB/IMF bailout then pulling the plug on the government in January does not bestow them with an ounce of credibility. Rather it will be seen as a desperate and cynical measure to ensure that working people and the unemployed continue to pay a heavy price for this crisis of Irish capitalism.

The Fianna Fáil/Green Party government can do a lot of damage between now and the end of January when they will be booted out. It is vital that a mass active opposition to their budget and the strings that will come attached with the ECB/IMF loan. This begins but doesn’t end with next Saturday’s National Protest. But this needs to be followed up by a 24 hour general strike and a mass protest at the Dáil on budget night.

“The overall result of the election is almost a forgone conclusion. We will likely get a Fine Gael/Labour government whose sole virtue is that they are not Fianna Fáil but who are nonetheless wedded to the cutback agenda. However their ability to continue this agenda will be greatly curbed if the current government is removed on the back of a movement of mass protests and strike action.

The United Left Alliance, of which the Socialist Party is part along with other forces on the left, will be launched in the media later this week and publicly launched at a rally in the Gresham Hotel next Monday. It will contest seats in all the key urban centres of the country and will credibly be in the running for up to seven seats. The United Left Alliance will be the real opposition in the next Dáíl and will go on to become a major factor in Irish politics in the coming year.